SOUTH FLORIDA HOSPITAL AND HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATION – A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT
We must keep our eyes on the future while at the same time being mindful of the rearview mirror and what has happened behind us. Namely, over the ages, influenza has been a much bigger problem around the world. While “COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic did — approximately 675,000” over time influenza has taken a serious toll in terms of total deaths. Moreover, like the worldwide scourge of a century ago, the coronavirus may never entirely disappear from our midst.
Vaccine safety has been of paramount importance since the creation of the first vaccines. With COVID-19 vaccines, we have seen that safety on display every day with growing numbers of vaccinated individuals experiencing minimal side effects and lasting protection. Please, do everyone around you a favor, get one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines, and let’s stamp out this virus. In addition, influenza vaccines have even a longer history of imparting lasting protection. Now, let us get back to influenza.
You can do what I did, use your favorite search engine, and search for “seasonal flu predictions” and you will see several pages of articles with typical titles such as this, “HEALTH AND SCIENCE, Health experts are anxious to prevent a ‘catastrophic’ winter flu season.” Last year, because of the extraordinary measures that most of us took to remain safe from contracting COVID-19, there weren’t that many flu cases. That is good news, and bad. It was good news because it showed us what using the big three could do in terms of minimizing exposure to the virus (masking, distance, and hand cleanliness) and bad because natural immunity to influenza wanes over time and we have likely used up what immunity we had.
To put this into perspective, we have seen an estimated 42.3 million COVID-19 infections since this virus first showed up in the U.S. In comparison, just over the years 2017-2020, we have experienced an estimated 119 million symptomatic illnesses that lead to 56 million medical visits and 117,000 deaths. Over the last ten years, there have been 359,000 deaths attributable to influenza.
Trust me; hospitals do not want to see you as a patient if there is any way for you to prevent it. As luck would have it, there is a way that you can prevent it, go and get your flu vaccine! The vaccine is tried and true and has been around for years. It infers temporary protection against getting the flu and, if you still get the flu after being vaccinated, your cases will be minor requiring just home rest or, maybe, a doctor’s visit. Yes, only “cents” for your protection and dollars of savings if you are able to avoid becoming a statistic. Schedule your appointment for your flu shot today … don’t wait.
